Large Round Dish - Limoges Porcelain - Bernardaud

"Large Round Dish - Limoges Porcelain - Bernardaud For Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth Ii"
Magnificent round dish created by the Limoges faience factory, specially created by Léonard Bernardaud for the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for her visit to France in 1957.
The decoration representing magnificent Chinese birds and flowers is entirely painted in gold. This piece is in excellent condition with no cracks or missing pieces.

Period: 20th century
Circa : 1957
Dimensions: Diameter : 28,7cm - Average total weight : 784grs
Signature : Under the base

Bernardaud has been making porcelain in Limoges for 159 years. The family business owes its durability to an ancestral know-how perfected by new techniques and to a diversification of its activity.
The history of the Bernardaud factory is closely linked to the great history of Limoges porcelain. According to legend, it began in 1768, when a woman went to wash her clothes and by chance found an infinitely white, soft and silky clay. In the commune of Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, about forty kilometres from Limoges, the neighbours spread the word and soon there were many of them coming to collect a few pieces of this precious rock to remove grease stains and whiten the sheets.

Descended from a modest family, Léonard Bernardaud started as an apprentice at La Taupinière and was noticed by Rémi Delinières, who was the only one in charge of the company after the death of his partner. The young man, very skilful with his hands, successively took charge of the workshops and the firm's commercial services before becoming the factory manager's partner in 1895, at the age of 38. When the latter died five years later, Léonard Bernardaud bought up all the shares and, in 1900, put his name on the front of the factory.
One hundred and fifty-nine years after its beginnings, the Bernardaud company, still controlled by the family, has become the leading manufacturer and exporter of tableware in France, employing 400 people and producing nearly two million pieces per year. A family-owned industrial jewel that owes its durability to ancestral know-how perfected by new techniques and a constantly renewed range.

"The porcelain we produce today has never been so beautiful.
This is not my doing or that of the workers who work for us. It's just that every year we raise our standards and our products improve. This is the hallmark of a company that is doing well," says Michel Bernardaud, the fifth to run the company.